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Chagall’s illustrations

In Marc Chagall: Maturity
…poet Jean de La Fontaine’s Fables, with coloured illustrations resembling 18th-century prints. Chagall prepared 100 gouaches for reproduction, but it soon became evident that his colours were too complex for the printing process envisaged. He switched to black-and-white etchings, completing the plates in 1931. By this time Vollard had come…
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discussed in biography

In Jean de La Fontaine
…Paris) was a poet whose Fables rank among the greatest masterpieces of French literature.
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fable

In fable, parable, and allegory: Influence of Jean de La Fontaine
He published his Fables in two segments: the first, his initial volume of 1668, and the second, an accretion of “Books” of fables appearing over the next 25 years. The 1668 Fables follow the Aesopian pattern, but the later ones branch out to satirize the court, the bureaucrats…
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French literature

In French literature: Nondramatic verse
Jean de La Fontaine’s Fables (1668; 1678–79; 1694; The Complete Fables of Jean de la Fontaine) succeed in transcending the limitations of the genre; and, although readers formerly concentrated heavily on the moral teaching they offer, it is possible to appreciate beneath their apparent naïveté the mature skills of…
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use of light verse

In light verse
…the English Puritans, and the Fables (1668, 1678–79, 1692–94) of Jean de La Fontaine, which create a comprehensive picture of society and minutely scrutinize its behavior.
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Sir Edward Howard Marsh

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Sir Edward Howard Marsh

British scholar

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Born:: November 18, 1872, London, England

Died:: January 13, 1953, London (aged 80)

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Sir Edward Howard Marsh (born November 18, 1872, London, England—died January 13, 1953, London) was a scholar, civil servant, and art collector who influenced the development of contemporary British art by patronizing unestablished artists. He was also an editor, translator, and biographer who was well-known in British literary circles of the early 20th century.

Marsh entered the civil service in 1896; beginning in 1905 he served for more than 20 years as private secretary to Winston Churchill. By 1904 Marsh was an important private collector of Old Master paintings; he later turned to collecting the work of contemporary British artists, helping to popularize painters such as Duncan Grant, Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler, and John and Paul Nash.

Marsh edited The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke (1918) and Georgian Poetry (1912–22), a five-volume anthology of modern poetry. He translated the French poet Jean de La Fontaine’s Fables (1931) and The Odes of Horace (1941), and he wrote a series of reminiscences entitled A Number of People (1939). Marsh was knighted upon his retirement in 1937.

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

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Fables

Learn about this topic in these articles:

Chagall’s illustrations

discussed in biography

fable

French literature

use of light verse

Sir Edward Howard Marsh